


Turn and Face the Strain (2/2)

by NellieOleson



Series: turn and face the strain [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-03-29
Packaged: 2017-11-02 16:59:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NellieOleson/pseuds/NellieOleson





	Turn and Face the Strain (2/2)

  
The world kept turning and the next four months slipped by with all the excitement of an Olympic curling match. Jack didn’t call her again and she didn’t waste time wondering why. She’d stepped over a line, a big one. So big, in fact, she’d really had to jump to get to the other side. She suspected Daniel spoke to him regularly, but she didn’t ask and he didn’t bring it up.  
  
Her team knew her well and they didn’t push for answers, most of them anyway. Vala questioned her every chance she got, but Sam thought Vala was only interested in the sordid details of the baby’s conception and Sam wasn’t willing to share those either.  
  
They didn’t question her, but they did wrap themselves around her like a blanket of support and friendship. Especially Daniel. He kept her anchored when her mind wanted to fly off in a fit of what-the-fuck-am-I-going-to-do. They talked about Sha’re and how Daniel sometimes wishes he had kept Shifu. They talked about losing parents too soon and debated whether losing one or both was more traumatic.  
  
Sometimes they even talked about Jack. Not often, and mostly it was a one-sided conversation with Daniel playing cheerleader for Jack. Which didn’t make much sense to Sam. Jack didn’t need a cheerleader; he needed a defensive line. Jack must have kept the details of their last phone conversation to himself.  
  
After all she’d put him through, he was still trying to protect her. She didn’t deserve that, even if it was just from Daniel.  
  
**********  
  
Sam was spending some quality time in her lab thinking about which bedroom she should turn into a nursery when Teal’c stopped by bearing gifts. He’d been visiting Rya’c and Ishta, and she hadn’t seen him for a week. She’d missed him. Teal’c was the best person to spend time with when you didn’t want to be interrogated. At least not verbally.  
  
“Teal’c, it’s good to see you.” She got up to give him a hug. “How are you?”  
  
“I am well, Colonel Carter.” He raised an eyebrow at her growing abdomen. “How are you?”  
  
“I’m fine, Teal’c.” She wasn’t sure why she bothered lying; Teal’c had a way of seeing the truth no matter how deep she buried it.  
  
Teal’c looked doubtful. Yep, no fooling him, she thought. He put a large hand on her shoulder and held out the package he was carrying. “I have something for your child.”  
  
It was an odd shape for a baby gift, long and thin and wrapped in a piece of dust-colored leather. “It’s not a symbiote, is it?” She would later think that was a poor attempt at humor. Teal’c had been through a lot trying to prevent his own son’s implantation.  
  
“It is not.” It seemed Teal’c knew her well enough to ignore her stupid joke.  
  
She carefully unwound the leather, freeing the object inside. “Oh my God, Teal’c, this is beautiful.” It was a tiny staff weapon, intricately carved from a single piece of wood. The detail was incredible and she found herself expecting it to power up. “Where did you get it?”  
  
Teal’c looked sideways at her. “At the new WalMart on Dakara,” he said. “They have everything.”  
  
Teal’c’s sense of humor had come a long way since joining SG-1 and she often wondered if he had to restrain himself around other Jaffa to keep from looking like an idiot. “Funny, Teal’c.”   
  
He smiled at her. “Ishta carved it. She is very skilled.” He paused. Perhaps to recall some of Ishta’s other skills. “This is a traditional gift among my people, used to instill a sense of honor in a young warrior. It is, of course, non-functional.”  
  
Sam rolled it around in her hands. “For now.” She nudged Teal’c with her shoulder. “I’ll see what I can do with it.”  
  
**********  
  
Mitchell became her unlikely shopping companion, spending most of his down time slogging through countless baby stores with her. At first she thought he was just trying to repay her for schooling him on SG-1’s early missions, but she was wrong. He enjoyed it. And he must have done some research because he knew far too much about the pros and cons of reclining high chairs.  
  
“I should have just ordered everything on-line,” Sam announced on their third trip through the crib display.  
  
Mitchell was winding up every hanging mobile he could find. “Come on, Sam. Where’s the fun in that?” He watched the spinning mobiles for a while, and then picked one off the shelf. “We should have brought Vala. She loves to shop.”  
  
“Really?” Sam tried to imagine Vala traipsing through the mall in leather pants and pigtails. It was disturbing.  
  
“That’s what Daniel tells me,” he said with a suggestive look Groucho Marx would have been proud of.  
  
Interesting. “I’ll have to ask him about that.” She rooted through her cart to see which mobile Mitchell had picked. “Good choice, Cam.” The kid might have to sleep in a cardboard box, but at least it would have something interesting to watch.  
  
“Thanks. It’s nice to know I’m good at something.” He threw an arm over her shoulder. “Wait till we get to the nursing bras, you won’t know what hit you.”  
  
“I don’t even want to know.”  
  
“Sure you do, Sam.” He pushed her toward the baby clothing. “I’ll tell you all about it in the car.”  
  
They stopped in front of the Onesie display and she let Mitchell loose on the tiny packages.  
  
**********  
  
It was raining again when Jack showed up on her doorstep for the last time.  
  
“Have I told you how much I love this car?” Sam asked Mitchell when they turned on to her street.  
  
“It is cool, isn’t it?” He pulled up in front of her house. “Maybe I’ll let you drive it when you’re not so big. But you have to—“ He looked past her and she turned to see what had caught his attention. “Isn’t that General O’Neill on your porch?”  
  
Of course it was. She looked at Jack and any panic she should have felt over his unexpected presence was overshadowed by the absolute joy of seeing him again. She wasn’t sure what would follow, but she knew this was a confrontation they needed to have. The baby must have picked up on her excitement because it started kicking her in the ribs. She winced and rubbed her belly.  
  
“Sam?”  
  
She turned back to Mitchell. “What?”  
  
“Are you okay with this?” He gestured toward her house. “Do you want me to go with you?”  
  
“No. Thanks, Cam. I’ll be fine. It’s time.”  
  
She thought maybe she was being too vague but Mitchell just nodded and got out of the car. He knew exactly what it was time for. She followed him around to the trunk. “Call me if you need anything,” he said as he handed over the bags of baby accessories.  
  
“I will.”  
  
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” He gave Jack a half-assed salute before getting in his car and driving off. Sam shook her head and began the long walk to her house.  
  
Jack was sitting on the top step, leaving everything but his head exposed to the rain. “Do you plan this?” She looked up at the falling rain and Jack smiled at her.  
  
“I do,” he replied. “I figure looking as pitiful as possible can only help at this point.”  
  
He stood up and she dropped her bags so she could wrap her arms around him. It had been too long and she needed to touch him. Her eyes felt hot and the baby was restless.  “I’m sorry,” she said. “For everything.” Sorry for getting pregnant, sorry for being so selfish, and sorry she wasn’t sitting on his doorstep. He shouldn’t have been the one to take this first step.  
  
He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “Don’t you think you should take me inside and help me out of these wet clothes?”  
  
She snorted into his neck. How could she _not_ be madly in love with him? “Don’t you think you’ve been watching too much daytime television?”  
  
“I have to. It’s in my job description.” Jack looked down at the lack of space between them. “My how you’ve grown,” he said.  
  
She had grown. And grown. And would continue to grow, much to her dismay. As it had on a daily basis for the past seven months, her mind tried to make peace with the fact that there was an entire other person growing inside of her. She tried not to be twelve, but it was unsettling. And to top it all off, eventually it had to come out.  
  
“I know. If I hadn’t seen the ultrasound, I wouldn’t believe there was only one in there,” said Sam. “I’m sorry,” she said again when it occurred to her that the entire SGC had probably seen the ultrasound images and Jack hadn’t. She wondered how many times she would need to say that before the guilt started to fade.  
  
“I have pictures,” she offered with a wince.  
  
“So do I,” said Jack.  
  
Sam was only confused for a moment; there was no way Daniel wouldn’t have sent copies to Jack. “Daniel?”  
  
He picked up her bags and walked toward the door. “Who else?”  
  
“I should have called you,” she said.  
  
“Oh, I don’t know, Carter. That didn’t work out so well the last time.”  
  
Sam rubbed her arms, suddenly aware of the chill on the wind. She’d replayed that conversation in her mind every day and had somehow come up with something less vindictive to say each time. “You know I didn’t mean that. I’m—“  
  
“You’re sorry. I know. Let’s just put that behind us. Far, far behind us.”  
  
She didn’t deserve to be pardoned so easily but wasn’t about to get into an argument over it. Sometimes the easy way was best. “Come on,” she said. “I’ll show you the baby’s room.”  
  
She opened the front door and led Jack to the bedroom she’d decided would belong to the baby. The guest bed was still in the room but she’d painted the walls a nice gender-neutral yellow and put some animal print curtains on the window. “It’s not much yet,” she told him. “The guys are coming over tomorrow to move furniture for me.”  
  
Jack sat on the bed and looked around. “It’ll be perfect.” There was an echo of sadness in his voice, like maybe he was remembering another child’s room. One with a less than perfect history.  
  
Sam sat on the bed next to him and took his hand. “Tell me about Charlie.”  
  
He does.  
  
They stayed in the room for hours, talking about things that had been kept locked up for too long. Things that sometimes bit when you took them out. It was a cathartic evening that had been a long time coming. She was still holding his hand when they turned out the lights and left the room.  
  
The make-up sex was phenomenal. She didn’t know if it was the hormones, the creative new positions they’d been forced into or just that she missed him so damn much. She was pretty sure she didn’t care either. And in the quiet afterwards, she decided they might never be June and Ward Cleaver raising little Wally in suburban bliss, but maybe they could eek out an existence as Jack and Sam, raising yet-to-be-named baby in the shadow of a top-secret portal to other worlds.  
  
It was almost the same. Surely it would make a better T.V. show.  
  
Jack never made it back to Washington.  
  
*********  
  
Eight weeks later and Sam’s life had been reduced to waddling around the mountain waiting for the baby to make its grand entrance. At least she told herself it would be grand and not just painful and messy and possibly destructive.  
  
Sam didn’t like being on base where she was treated more like a mascot than a military officer—a mascot with swollen ankles and blotchy skin. She would have passed the time at home, but General Landry had all but ordered her to remain a contraction away from the infirmary and its staff of doctors with security clearances and knowledge of her colorful medical history.  
  
She was spending another fun-filled evening with Jack and Daniel in the empty mess hall. The remnants of an abandoned Monopoly game were scattered across their table. Mitchell had escaped the mountain for the weekend and Vala hadn’t seen the point in playing with imaginary property.  
  
So it had just been the four of them, fighting over who got to be the dog and lording over their plastic real estate. It was almost painful but Sam wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Jack argued about nothing, Daniel enabled him, Sam refereed, and as usual, Teal’c quietly kicked all their asses, then retired to his quarters.  
  
“What are you going to do, Sam?” Daniel asked.  
  
“About what?” Sam hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation flowing around her. Jack and Daniel had been talking about peanut butter and she had tuned them out because there was nowhere good for that conversation to go.  
  
“About your life,” said Daniel. “Are you going to stay at the SGC or look for something a little more normal?”  
  
Sam hadn’t given much thought to what she would do— _and how did they go from peanut butter to her plans for the future?_ She missed the action of combat, but wasn’t sure she could go back to it. It wasn’t as easy to throw your life on the line when you had someone keeping the porch light on for you. So far they’d avoided making any of the difficult choices.  
  
Jack surprised them both with an answer. “She’ll be back,” he told Daniel. “Unless I strap a naquadah generator to the baby stroller.” He thought about that for a minute then reconsidered. “Or to the baby.”  
  
In the end, she didn’t really get a choice.  
  
**********  
  
Sam’s due date came and went with the baby making no attempt to leave its pocket of safety.  
  
“This is all your fault,” she told Jack. They were sitting in the infirmary after the latest in a string of daily visits to Dr. Lam in which she informed them that there were no indications of impending labor. Followed by the useless advice to try walking and the equally useless—but much more entertaining—advice to try having sex.  
  
“How is this my fault?” Asked Jack. “It’s your uterus.”  
  
“Your genes are behind this, I’ve never been late for an appointment in my life.”  
  
“We could induce you,” said Dr. Lam. “Ideally, I’d like to have a real Obstetrician here for that,” she said, more to herself than to Sam. She tapped her pen against her clipboard and Sam wanted to snatch it out of her hand.  
  
The baby needed to come out before she hurt someone.  
  
“We don’t need more doctors,” said Jack. “Daniel can help.”  
  
“What? Me?”  Daniel was sitting in a blue, plastic chair at the end of her bed. She wasn’t sure why he was there. Either Jack had invited him or Daniel was just really bored. Or maybe Jack was bored and had brought Daniel for his own entertainment.  
  
“Sure, Daniel, you’ve delivered lots of babies.”  
  
“Two, Jack. Two is not lots.”  
  
“It’s lots more than the rest of us have delivered.”  
  
Sam shook her head and silently counted to ten. “How soon can we do it?” She asked Dr. Lam.  
  
“Give me two days,” she said. “I need to get someone in here with the right credentials and a security clearance.”  
  
***********  
  
Sam woke up in the middle of the night and threw the covers to the side. She was hot and uncomfortable and she needed to pee. Again. She wasn’t sure she’d survive the next two days.  
  
Jack sat up with her and turned on the light. “What’s wrong?”  
  
“Nothing,” she said. “I just have to go to the bathroom.” She picked up his hand and squeezed it. “Go back to sleep.” Sam knew he wouldn’t let himself fall asleep until she was back in bed but she said it anyway.  
  
“Call me if you need help,” said Jack.  
  
“I think I can still pee by myself.”  
  
“Whatever you say, Carter. I’ve seen Teal’c helping you out of your chair.”  
  
“Shut up.” She slapped him on the thigh, stood up, and promptly sat back down. “Oh my God.”  
  
Jack was out of bed before her ass hit the mattress. “What?”  
  
“I think my water just broke.” She held onto the mattress and tried not to panic. Even though the baby was late, she felt like she was walking into a hurricane with nothing more than an umbrella and some cheap rubber boots.  
  
“It’s about damn time,” said Jack.  
  
**********  
  
Dr. Lam had set up a private room for the delivery. The news spread quickly and Sam was surprised at the number of people who stopped by to offer support—and grateful her room didn’t have an observation deck. They paraded past her bed until the contractions started running together and Teal’c took up a position by the door to give her some privacy.  
  
Sam rolled onto her side and gripped the steel bed rail as another contraction rolled by. They came in unending waves, each one stronger than the last. She had to remind herself to breathe through the pain and she silently cursed Jolinar for leaving her immune to wonders of an epidural. Jack sat next to her bed and rubbed her back. It didn’t do much to ease her discomfort, but the physical contact was grounding.  
  
The urge to push became overwhelming, but Dr. Lam kept telling her it wasn’t time yet. She needed to wait. Sam’s brain wanted to put off the pushing part as long as possible, but the pain kept it distracted enough to allow her body to do its job. When Dr. Lam finally announced that Sam was fully dilated and effaced and it was time to push, she wanted to cry.  
  
Sam pushed.  
  
And it hurt just as much as she’d imagined it would. Jack was holding her hand but his attention was focused on the area between her legs. There was a sharp, burning sensation and Dr. Lam told her to stop pushing. The outer edges of her vision started to fade and she squeezed Jack’s hand. When he looked down at her, his expression told her all she needed to know about his willingness to revisit fatherhood. Daniel was right, that was one thing she could have crossed off her list of stuff to worry about.  
  
There was an increase in the level of activity at the end of the bed as the baby came completely into the world. She barely heard Jack when he told her it was a boy; he might have been talking to himself. Jack’s grip on her hand tightened in the excruciating silence before their child voiced his displeasure at his strange, new existence. After freeing him from the umbilical cord, Dr. Lam wrapped him in a blanket and placed him on Sam’s stomach.  
  
He was tiny and red and wrinkly, and Sam was instantly in love. He looked at her with wide, blue eyes and she ran her hand over his cheek. He turned his mouth toward her finger as it slid by and she smiled. All the pain and uncertainty of his arrival faded into history where they would be romanticized or forgotten.  
  
The room finally cleared and it was just the three of them. A family. Sam had never felt more like an adult and the enormous responsibility of rearing a child settled into the chair next to her bed. It made itself comfortable and pulled out a crossword puzzle, a big one, probably from the New York Times.  
  
“We need a name,” said Jack. He reached down to take the baby and Sam found herself reluctant to give him up. “How about Homer?”  
  
She really should have seen that coming. “No.”  
  
“Bart?”  
  
“We’re not naming him after any of the Simpsons.” Although she did think Apu was kind of cute.  
  
Jack stared down at the baby, who had taken his finger and was trying to pull it to his mouth. “Apophis?” He offered. “Teal’c would love that.”  
  
“No system lords either.” Sam shifted in the bed, she thought she might have to pee again and wondered how much that was going to hurt. Maybe she should ask for a catheter.  
  
Jack was unusually still for a moment. “We could name him after your father.”  
  
“I’ve thought about that,” she admitted. “It’s a lot to live up to.” And she thought it was a bit creepy. “How about Alexander?”  
  
“The Great?”  
  
“Well maybe not right away but he’s got a lot of potential,” said Sam. As long as they could keep him focused for more than five minutes. Sam often had visions of Jack as a toddler, bouncing off walls, picking up everything that wasn’t nailed down and generally driving his parents crazy.  
  
“Can I call him Alex?”  
  
“Sure.” No sense holding the baby’s name to a higher standard than either of theirs. They’d probably only be Samantha and Jonathan on their wedding day. If they ever got married. Jesus, did they have to get married? She hadn’t even bothered to think about that yet.  
  
Jack interrupted her budding mental tangent. “I like it.”  
  
Sam took a moment to really look at the two of them. They were sickeningly cute together. The baby looked even smaller in Jack’s arms and she just knew they’d be fighting over him. The kid would probably be two before he ever touched the ground. “Can I have him back?”  
  
“No.”  
  
Time to bring out the big guns. She had the advantage of being the food source. More pain to look forward to. “He’s probably hungry, I should try to feed him.”  
  
“Ok, then.” Jack put Alex back on Sam’s chest and helped her into a sitting position. “I’ll just sit here and watch.”  
  
And for a time, life was good.  
   
**********  
  
Epilogue:  
  
  
  
Sam’s back at work for three months before the Ori put an end to the war that hasn’t really started yet.  
  
She’d opted for a research position that would assure her a reasonably predictable schedule—because babies liked schedules. It’s not always exciting and sometimes it isn’t even fun, but it beats the hell out of scrap-booking or candle parties or whatever normal mothers do to keep their sanity.  
  
She doesn’t miss the field as much as she thought she would. Being a mother provides her with the same opportunity to not shower, sleep, or eat properly for days at a time. She also gets to sneak around the house when the baby is sleeping and dodge projectile vomit on occasion. So her life is pretty much the same, only without the guns.  
  
Daniel was right about Jack, he’s thrilled to be a father again and it suits him. He gets to play with toys all day and he doesn’t have to shave. He even seems to like changing diapers. She hasn’t figured that one out yet.  
  
They’re eating a predictably scheduled dinner on a Friday night when the Deadelus beams them out in the middle of dessert. There’s no time to ask questions and the last thing she sees before entering hyperspace is an Ori ship looming over her planet.  
  
The Ori finally realized they had no appreciable defenses and weren’t worth the trouble they caused. The destruction is swift and complete and buys them a ticket to the Pegasus galaxy. There’s nothing they can do so they run away while Earth burns. She thinks she should be more surprised, angry, appalled—something. Maybe that will come later.  
  
Mostly she regrets not finishing her cheesecake.  
  
Mitchell is with them—he’s thanked God hourly for his locator implant. She hasn’t gotten a straight answer about Teal’c yet. He may have been off world when the Ori showed up. Or not.  Either way, he’s not on the Deadelus.  
  
Daniel and Vala are already on Atlantis. Ironically, they’re supposed to be looking for an Ancient weapon to destroy the Ori. _You snooze; you lose_ her ostensibly dead brother whispers in her ear.  
  
She ignores him.  
  
Good old Ancients. They seem to have had a weapon for everything. If only they’d left them all in one easily accessible place.  
  
Properly labeled.  
  
**********  
  
Jack sits in their quarters wondering what the hell they are going to do about diapers. Alex is trying to fit his toes into his mouth. He’s surprisingly calm to be hurtling through space to a new home in another galaxy. Jack mops some drool off his chin and stares at him. He looks just like Carter; all tow-headed and blue eyed and nothing at all like Charlie.  
  
The old, cynical Jack thinks their rescue squad really only wanted Carter and her brain—him and the baby are just excess baggage. The new, only slightly less cynical Jack thinks maybe they want him for his Ancient gene. The gene therapy doesn’t always work and having more people who can control Ancient technology can only be a good thing.  
  
And maybe Alex has the gene too. Jack hasn’t given him much in the way of looks, but maybe he’s given him that. A little Get Out Of Jail Free card made from his DNA. Sure, it won’t do much good having an infant who can fly a jumper, but eventually he might be useful.  
  
Gotta think long term.  
  
They’ll probably be there a while.


End file.
